AI models to detect how you’re feeling in sales calls

AI software is being offered to sales teams to analyze whether potential customers appear interested during virtual meetings.

Sentiment analysis is often used in machine-learning research to detect emotions in underlying text or video, and the technology is now being applied to help people see how possible future clients are feeling in sales pitches to improve results, Protocol reported this month.

The COVID-19 pandemic has moved a lot of meetings virtually as employees work from home. « It’s very hard to build rapport in a relationship in that type of environment, » said Tim Harris, director of product marketing at Uniphore, a software company specializing in conversational analytics.

The hope is that sellers may be able to use AI technology to automatically tell when they’re boring clients and can immediately change tactics, such as being more empathetic to keep them interested. In addition, reactions to individual products could be included, so that vendors are aware of what Harris calls « emotional state of a deal. »